Six weeks after winning reelection, Bainbridge Republican state Sen. Dean Burke resigned to become the chief medical officer at the Department of Community Health.
Gov. Brian Kemp has set a special election to fill Burke’s District 11 seat in southwest Georgia for Jan. 31. District 11 includes Brooks, Colquitt, Cook, Decatur, Grady, Thomas and Seminole counties.
Three days after the November election, Burke was also reelected by his Republican peers to serve as the Senate Republican Caucus’ secretary. He served in the Senate as the chamber’s Insurance Committee chairman.
Burke, a retired obstetrics and gynecology physician who works as the chief medical officer at Memorial Hospital and Manor in Bainbridge, joined the Senate in 2013.
The DCH manages, among other things, the state plans for Medicaid and PeachCare for Kids — the public health programs that provide care to the poor and disabled. It also oversees the State Health Benefit Plan, which provides medical coverage for hundreds of thousands of state employees, school staffers and retirees.
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